I think you'll find a significant number of people who decide not to enter competitions because their music just won't fit in that world.

I had been creating music on tape that was to be listened to as a recording, rather than through performance.

I don't think of my music as being about something.

I think you'll find a significant number of people who decide not to enter competitions because their music just won't fit in that world.

It's very interesting for me to listen to music with my wife. She's not a musician but she very often makes comments about pieces in ways that are similar to what I'm thinking.

I was very fortunate to be at a wealthy institution. I do recognize the drawbacks and limitations of the academic world but it's basically the world I grew up in and there's no way in which I would have been able to survive in the so-called real world.

Even today, I notice that some of my pieces are explicitly tonal; there are actually tonics and dominants. And then there are pieces that are not tonal. I tend to think that there's a dichotomy that has to do with the way pitches are structured.